Ever since Lawrence Stroll bought Aston Martin and rebranded his Formula One team to the same name, questions have been asked of the Canadian billionaire as to his exact ambitions in the cut throat sport. His $200m investment in state of the art facilities are akin to the funding Mercedes brought to the Brackley based outfit they bought from Brawn GP.

Stroll has been strengthening the engineering capabilities of the Aston Martin F1 team and his coup detente came this season as the team proudly announced they had captured the signature of Red Bull’s guru designer Adrian Newey.

Aston Martin recruited former world champion Sebastian Vettel to spearhead their attack when the former Red Bull man was exited from Ferrari. When Vettel announced his retirement from F1, Aston Martin replaced their world champion driver in a matter of days with another in Fernando Alonso.

 

 

 

F1 Debut at Williams

The metrics comparing the performance of the two Aston Martin drivers are copious, yet the simple fact is Fernando has finished ahead of his team mate 68% of the time both drivers complete a Grand Prix.

Stroll debuted in F1 for the Williams team in 2017 and he was partnered with Felipe Massa to become the first Canadian in F1 since there 1997 champion Jacques Villeneuve. Daddy Stroll reportedly paid Williams $80m prior to Lance’s debut which ended badly and was in some way a sign of things to come.

Lance crashed in practice on debut in Australia then received a grid drop penalty for an unscheduled gear box change. He retired from the race complaining about the brakes which was followed by another two retirements after collisions. With Sergio Perez at the Chinese GP and Carlos Sainz Jnr next time up in Bahrain.

Stroll’s first race finish came in Russia when he came home in seventh place, despite a spin on the opening lap of the race. Across his 163 race starts, Lance has claimed three podiums and a pole position and his current contract will see him at Aston Martin until at least 2026.

Verstappen backed by rivals in FIA row

 

 

 

Worthy of an F1 drive?

Yet few F1 observers believe the son of a Canadian billionaire is worthy of his place as one of the elite top 20 driers in the pinnacle of motorsport. Even more bizarre is the fact that Daddy Stroll is a ruthless businessman yet year in and out he puts up with sub-par performances in one of his prototype racing machines.

In what proved to be a pivotal year for Aston Martin, Fernando Alonso was the closest challenger to Max Verstappen as the Red Bull driver set about creating history in 2023. Fernando podiumed at six of the first seen race weekends, meanwhile Stroll was racking up his 100th qualifying defeat from 136 starts.

Lance came home that year in tenth place in the drivers’ championship but contributed less than a quarter of the points the team collected during the season. In fact had Stroll contributed in a similar fashion to Fernando, Aston Martin would have finished the season second ahead of Mercedes.

Red Bull Racing have proven this year that carrying a passenger as an F1 team’s number two driver, makes it impossible for the team to claim the biggest prize at the end of the year. Aston Martin are in a similar position and even should Adrian Newey build another of his winning F1 machines for the team, in Lance Stroll they don’t have the capacity to win the constructors’ title race.

Ferrari president “regrets” Lewis Hamilton decision

 

 

 

Ex-team boos scathing about Lance

Guenther Steiner has now launched a scathing attack on Lance Stroll following his nightmare weekend at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. In Sprint qualifying Stroll was just nineteenth quickest, he went on to come hime last in the shortened version of the Grand Prix ahead only of Nico Hülkenberg who had a DNF.

Crashes galore and general carnage in Grand Prix qualifying saw Stroll emerge in tenth place although a rookie mistake on the formation lap meant he failed to complete a single lap of racing. In what was a embarrassing blunder, Lance left the circuit at turn four but remained on the hard standing run off. His attempt to spin the car around to face the track went horribly wrong and instead he shoved it into the gravel where he became beached and out of the race before it even began.

Steiner claims Stroll was merely unable to cope with the pressure after making such a huge mistake and having a big crash in Q1. “The pressure got to him,” the Italian told the Red Flags podcast. “He knew he did something stupid on the formation lap and then just didn’t take control anymore of what he was doing. I think he panicked.”

Having spinoff the circuit during the formation lap Steiner believes in the moment Stroll lost the ability to think clearly. “In situations when the world is looking at you, you’re always critiqued, you do something stupid on the formation [lap]. What to do next? Something more stupid. It’s just like a brain fart.”

Hamilton ousted from Mercedes team meetings

 

 

 

“Never seems to be happy”

The Netflix star and ex-Haas F1 team boss argues that Stroll would have no interest in becoming a racing driver if it was not for his father the billionaire team owner. Lance is regularly minimal in his communication with the media when rostered to appear at the FIA mandated driver press conferences.

“He never seems to be happy, whatever happens,” said Steiner. “So would he be a world champion if he would be happy? I don’t know about that one because some people can be good when even they’re unhappy.

“We think he’s unhappy and maybe it’s just his expression. I think a lot of people critique him: ‘He’s such a bad driver. He’s just there because daddy has the team.’

“But put it this way: if daddy wouldn’t have a team, I don’t think Lance would be a Formula One driver because he doesn’t want to be one.”

Steiner explains Hamilton’s persistent moans

 

 

 

Sullen Stroll fails to explain humiliating error

Stroll has not made the top ten in a Grand Prix for over four months now and his paltry 24 points across 21 race weekends is truly pitiful. Despite this Aston Martin handed him a shiny new contract which will see him alongside Fernando Alonso until at least the end of 2026.

When asked about his humiliating antics during the Sao Paulo formation lap, Lance appeared vague and failed to address was was going through his mind.

“It was a really strange one,” said the Canadian. “It felt like a brake failure because as soon as I touched the brakes it locked the rear axle and I became a passenger. I was stuck in the gravel and my race was done.”

There was no explanation as to why he deliberately spun his car into the gravel, but then again this is the enigma that is Lance Stroll, Canada’s finest since the outspoken Jacques Villeneuve. It could be Lance didn’t want to risk his life in such treacherous conditions at Interlagos and so the safest solution was to shove his British Racing Green machine into the gravel and retire to the comfort of the team’s hospitality suite.

Hamilton/Verstappen: A formidable duel for 2025

 

 

 

Lawson aggression too much? As he calls out McLaren

Liam Lawson arrived as a breath air in Formula One last season. He was given his chance at V-CARB when Daniel Ricciardo broke his hands in a practice session at the Dutch Grand Prix.

The New Zealander was to impress in his five race weekend taster series, matching and even beating his experienced team mate Yuki Tsunoda. As Ricciardo returned for the season’s final run in, questions emerged as to whether it should be the eight times Grand Prix winner or the rookie who should replace the sacked Nyck de Vries on a permanent basis for 2024.

Given the politics raging inside the Red Bull team, Christian Horner pulled rank on their Austrian advisor insisting it would be the Australian who would be given the full time drive for this year. Yet as has been the case with a number of the F1 elder statesman, Ricciardo just couldn’t get to grips with the new ground effect designed cars and just weeks after Daniel was tipped to be replacing Perez after the summer break, the loveable Aussie was gone once the smog had settled at the Singapore Grand Prix…. READ MORE